Retail Intelligence

Recognised since 1909, International Women's Day is a day of celebrating just how much women contribute to society, economy and communities. But it's also a rallying cry, to recognise the work that is left to be done to achieve true gender equality. We take a look at how brands reacted to the annual celebration of womanhood.

In some countries, International Women's Day is a public holiday, in others, it's a day of protest – while in New Zealand, it's marked similarly to the anniversary of universal suffrage: a day to celebrate how far we've come towards gender equality, and how far we have to go.

The 2019 theme was #BalanceforBetter and many New Zealand brands choose to identify the diversity within their ranks and celebrate it.

Stuff NZ

Stuff was one of the brands that joined Champions for Change in 2018, an organisation which released a campaign asking people to acknowledge their unconscious bias in the workplace and do something about it.

Ecostore

Ecostore approached the day from a different, no less serious angle. The eco-friendly company shared a video focussing on the world’s original, most important woman: Mother Earth. The video finishes with the line: “This International Women’s Day, please, please, support the woman who gave us everything, Mother Earth”.

Shared on Ecostore’s social media, the company called for help to protect the Earth in the face of climate change.

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand tied its International Women’s Day social media post with the release of Marvel’s first-ever female-led film: Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, is a pilot in the US Air Force – which fits nicely with the hand-drawn comic Air New Zealand shared, drawn by one the female staff in the design team.

Of course, there was the comment section was not without its share of the standard “Is there an international men’s day?” responses – but Air New Zealand generously replied saying “...There sure is, and we will celebrate that on November 19…”.

Spark

Spark boosted its STEM Scholarships in its post. The telco is awarding five scholarships annually to help foster a more diverse digital talent pool, and encourage women to study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees. Currently, only one third of New Zealand students studying in STEM subjects are women.

Vodafone New Zealand

Vodafone took a different track on International Women’s Day, by posting two paid partnerships to its social channels.

The first was with TEDxAuckland, featuring 2018 speaker Jess Quinn and her quest to shed light on the way photoshopped images create narrow and unrealistic views of what beauty looks like.

Vodafone also shared a video with Black Ferns and All Blacks players throwing a rugby ball around, talking about the need to level up the playing field.

Kiwibank

Kiwibank kept things simple, marking the day with posts from two women within company, talking about what gender equality at work means to them.

ZM

ZM strayed away from its regular content, with the women of the station hosting its first ever All Women Breakfast show to celebrate both International Women’s Day and the release of Captain Marvel. Instead of the usual Fletch, Vaughan and Megan, the show was run by Megan, Bel and Bree – with Megan opening up about the blatant sexism she has experienced during her career in radio.

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As of 3pm on March 21, a wide range of semi-automatic weapons have been reclassified under section 74A(c) of the Arms Act as requiring an E endorsement on a firearms license. This means they can no longer be sold to those with A-category gun licenses, and their purchase now requires police approval.

Social scoreboard

Zavy and The Register have worked together to create a scoreboard that compares how the top 25 traditional media advertising spenders in New Zealand have performed on social media over the past 30 days, updated in real time.

In the wake of the attack on Christchurch’s Muslim community on March 15, strong calls for changes to New Zealand’s gun last have been made. Trade Me was the first retailer to act, halting the sale of all semi-automatic weapons on its platform, and it has now been joined by Hunting & Fishing New Zealand.

As 2018 comes to an end, what a more fitting Instagram page to celebrate than our own. NZ Retail Magazine has had a busy year, and keeping readers up to date through our Instagram page has been an important part of that. Plus it looks pretty good if you ask any of us.

Let the retail store name generator rebrand your business

We know every shop name is chosen with care and attention, but it's a crowded market out there, and sometimes the results can seem a little random. Instead of fighting that randomness, we thought, why not just go with it?

If you were born in a leap year, you can add some not-so-exotic spice to your business name with our random French or Italian word generator. If not, carry on to the next table.